Boys to Row Across Indian Ocean

Two boys from Berkshire, Jamie Facer-Childs,21, and James Thysse,22, are going to row 3,600 miles from Australia to Africa in the nude and hope to make history as the first pair to row across the Indian Ocean. They hope to complete their adventure in 90 days although they have little or no experience in rowing before.

The pair will row in two hour shifts and plan to carry food and de-salinator with them because they will not have any dock location after they leave Australia and till they reach Mauritius.

James said that he had thought of this adventure after he finished university because he wanted to do something “spectacular” with his life. He said, “I think I’d had a pretty bad day, and I just wanted to do something after university that would break the monotony of life, of waking up, going to work, going home and going to bed. I looked into something we could do, something amazing and something spectacular, and also something that hadn’t been done before.”

The boys have chosen their own charities to fund with what they will make on this trip. Jamie, born 21 years ago as a result of an IVF treatment wants to raise money for Sparks, a medical research organization and James wants to raise fund for Headway which deals with head injuries.

The two boys confessed that they were most worried about sharks and whales on this rowing trip, saying, “The Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean and it’s the highest populated ocean with wildlife. It has the whole range of sharks, from great white sharks to goblin sharks. But the biggest danger is whales, because they are so big they are unaware of what’s around them, they could just surface and break our boat in two without even realising it.”